A Door to Far.
Chapter 1

Day 267

It's been months since we last saw our home. What we did, how

we did it. I don't know anymore. We've been the hunters and

we've been the hunted. I just wish we could go home now. But

home is gone, because of us. Because of us, we will never see

our friends again, our families, our village. It's all gone.

Tomorrow we go to look for another portal; we hope to find

a new place to call home. We can only keep looking.

I owe it to her to find us a new home where we can be safe again.

Naruto slapped the journal closed. Every day he wrote in it, recorded his feelings, hopes, despair and beliefs, but he would never let his companion see what he had become; he kept her going with his cheerfulness, and that was one thing he refused to give up.

"Naruto!" The quiet yell ripped through the silence of the forest, a forest that held many both beautiful and dangerous creatures. "Naruto!" It came again, just a little louder, a hint of panic lacing her voice at the thought of having lost her only companion in the world.

"Yes, Hinata? Is everything okay? You aren't hurt, are you?" he asked. His concern for his only companion was evident. "You weren't followed, were you?" he finished as an afterthought.

"N-no, but you should see this! I-it's something new!" Hinata replied with happiness as she rounded a large tree. She fit right in with the forest, wearing a pair of combat boots rated for tough use, leaf green pants spattered with mud, a brown coat covered in leaves and other foliage and a black cap hiding her ever so unique lavender hair.

"Hinata, everything is new here. I told you this before. We shouldn't be looking at the animals, we should be looking for a portal," Naruto replied sadly as he dropped to the ground.

Even the boisterous Naruto had dampened down his unique style, dressed with a set of black combat boots, green pants with many pockets used to hold all matter of tools, a brown long sleeved turtle neck that didn't hinder movement and a black cap to hide his sun blond hair.

"I-I-I know, but these look different, li-like they don't belong. I don't - I don't - you just have to see for yourself, okay?"

Naruto took a few seconds to reply, weighing the options of seeking out new and dangerous creatures against that of seeking a portal to take them away from this strange land.

"Alright, alright, alright, but we go in prepared; take your gear. Understand?" he said as he grabbed his black satchel with emergency rations, kunai, and his trustworthy ninja-to. The basic exploration kit.

"Hai, Naruto, you won't r-regret it, I promise," Hinata said with a hint of happiness at being allowed to learn more about the animals of this world as she, too, grabbed her kit and weapon.

It had all started when Naruto was eighteen. They had discovered a portal of some kind in the ruins of whirlpool, a portal that would come and go on its own. The first team sent through came back shortly with descriptions of large dinosaurs that towered over trees, with teeth as large as your hand and just as dangerous as any ninja.

That was the beginning.

Shortly after the discovery, Akatsuki, a band of terrorists, struck, and although they had been defeated it was at a great cost. The Tailed Beasts had been captured and released and few had survived. Naruto was one of the lucky ones; his stronger than average vitality and stubborn nature had allowed him to survive the process of removing a Tailed Beast, but he was one of the few. The Elemental Countries, as they were known, had become a desolate wasteland filled with dangerous animals, and the life expectancy of a ninja had dropped to just two years. A plan was hatched to explore the uses of the portal - to find a new home.

Over the course of a year, more portals were discovered and documented. Some led to barren wastelands similar to their own, others to lush forests, and still more to monstrous mountain ranges, until one day they discovered a portal that sent one back twenty years to a time of peace. This portal was the key. A team of five was gathered, to be captained by Naruto and Hinata, to return to this past and correct all the wrongs before they were to happen, to save their civilization from their own destruction.

That was where it began to unravel.

Upon returning, the team set out to Konoha with the belief that with the Fourth Hokage all of the tragedies of the future could be averted and life could be saved. Oh, how they were wrong. When they saved the Hokage and drove off the dreaded Nine-Tails, they believed their mission complete. They believed they could go back home to a land of peace.

They entered the portal again and came out to a world that was worse off than before. All they had left behind was gone; their surviving friends and family had vanished; the powers of the ninja were no longer prevalent; and worst of all, the people they spoke to knew nothing of them. The world was in ruins. The future had been changed drastically.

The team traveled to Konoha again to discover what had happened and where they had gone wrong on their mission. It was then that they discovered the truth. The Fourth, their saving grace, had brought war upon their home. The fear of such a powerful man living as a leader of the most powerful village was enough for the other countries to band together; they attacked and destroyed the Village Hidden in the Leaves. They left nothing standing.

The worst part of this new future was the absence of chakra. The life force of the ninjas had all but been destroyed. No one knew how exactly it had disappeared; the stories blamed the release of the Tailed Beasts from their containers during the war, saying that the sudden influx of so much demonic chakra acted like a parasite. The more vile and corrosive chakra settled over the Elemental Countries and absorbed the life energy of the ninjas. Thousands had died in the first month, the economy had collapsed and the world as they knew it was gone.

The team came to a decision then and there: No matter what the future held, it was a future that they would have to live with, even without chakra. Nothing could be changed in the past; it was to remain the same to ensure that what they did have would survive. The consequences of changing the past could be too much, and so the team would do everything they could to prevent that from happening.

And for a few months the team did what they had to do: They prevented monsters from escaping the portals and kept the present as safe as possible. But even that didn't last. Three members of the team decided enough was enough; they would return to the past again and prevent themselves from starting this mess in the first place. Naruto forbade them. And that was the end of their world.

The three traitors escaped through one portal and into another, changing what they needed as they went, and Naruto and Hinata followed, hunting them down. One by one they stopped the traitors, but the damage had been done.

When the last traitor fell, they realized they had become lost in time. They knew of no way home, of no way to correct all the wrongs; all they knew were dinosaurs.

Day 268

Hinata wasn't kidding when she said it was something new!

These creatures don't belong; even the native animals know

that. This could only mean one thing: a portal's nearby. Now

all we need to do is find that portal. But something's strange

about these creatures - it's almost like they can hear a heartbeat.

There can be no other explanation for how they found their lunch.

Lunch, that's a polite way of saying they pounced on that vegetable

eating dinosaur and ripped it to shreds. I hope we never have to deal

with those things.

Naruto's head darted up from his journal as he heard something approach the camp from the west.

"N-Naruto! They're back again!" Hinata's urgent voice carried through the small clearing.

"What?" he asked. "What do you mean they're back?"

"J-just that. About a mile north th-they've trapped another dinosaur." Her voice held some concern. "W-we have to save it; these things aren't natural, and we can b-both see that." Naruto smiled at Hinata's concern. Ever since they were young, she had always cared for the underdog in any situation.

Naruto hated being in charge. The drive to seek out a portal to a new and safe home was always at the front of his mind, but it was second to keeping his only friend as happy as possible. Somehow, her want to seek out and help any creature in the vicinity always happened to counter their need to move on and find the next portal; by going on this humanitarian mission, they would be forced to move their camp and possibly miss the formation of a new portal, a new chance at life. But at the same time, pushing forward and not helping would only prove that he had lost any shred of humanity that had once remained and alienate him from Hinata.

There was no right decision in this situation, but having to choose between the life and death of another creature left a sour taste in his mouth, even if that creature was a dinosaur. They would go and save the little guy and have to take their chances with finding a new portal somewhere else.

"I agree, but grab all our gear; if we do this, you know there's no coming back here," he warned her. "These things are scary good trackers. We'll need to move further to the west - there's a lake there that we can use to set up a new camp."

Hinata smiled in triumph.

They hid their gear two hundred meters to the west of the creatures. They would have to make sure to lose the creatures after they made initial contact, and then they could double back later to pick up what they had hidden.

Naruto looked around the small clearing where the dinosaur had been cornered, its soft mews drowning out the local birds. His eyes traveled up to the branches of the taller trees where the beasts looked down and seemed to grin at their prey below them.

"I count two - one twenty meters to the south and another forty meters to the south-east. How do you wanna do this?" Naruto turned to his companion.

"I-I don't think it matters now."

The two creatures turned to look at them and soft clicks filled the clearing.

"Well, let's hope that little guy makes a run for it while we get eaten," Naruto deadpanned as he drew his ninja-to.

The clicking continued to fill the clearing as the two monsters turned their bodies to face the two lost ninjas.

"Thank you, Naruto, f-for doing this." Hinata smiled.

Naruto nodded. "Hinata, all you need to do is ask and I'll help. If I didn't, what kind of captain would I be?" he said with a grin as he placed his sword in front of his body, covering himself from groin to head. "Best to go all out here, okay?" he finished as he pulled out a kunai in his left hand. "Block and strike; use the trees to disorient them, just like back home, okay?"

The two monsters crouched and observed them - predators observing prey. They seemed to coil up and the clicking grew in intensity. They sprung forth with an ferocity that showed little care for themselves, used to being more agile than the prey they so craved.

"Scatter!" Naruto yelled as he dived to the left.

Hinata dogged to the right with no thought, having learned to trust her co-captain.

The two predators hit the ground and rolled, not used to missing prey on the first leap. Their maws opened, showing a line of razor-sharp teeth designed to tear through the toughest of metals.

"Strike fast and hard, then break contact! The little guy's made a run for it!" Naruto's voice carried through the small battlefield.

"Hai!" Hinata shouted as she dodged to the right, avoiding the vicious three-fingered swipe from the predator.

Naruto dived forward and twisted his body, dodging the first swipe, and used the kunai to protect his chest from the follow-up attack. Having made it past the wild animal, he used the trees to break contact with his foe and came around, attempting to flank the beast and end the fight fast. As he rounded the large tree, the monster turned to face him, as if sensing his every movement.

"Damn!" he cursed as he ducked, twisted and blocked the attacking beast. He used his blades to block the creature's thick paws and kicked out, attempting to put distance between them to give himself a few quick seconds to think.

'This thing uses its front legs to propel itself forward. What if we disable its ability to move? We could break contact and get to safety,' Naruto thought quickly. "Hinata!" he called. "Go for the legs! Take away its ability to jump!"

"Hai!" she shouted as she once again jumped to the side of the predator, throwing a brace of kunai at the hunter's paws, hoping to pin it to the ground. "We can't kill them. We don't know if it could change things even more!"

"I think we may have crossed that line already! I really think they really wanna eat us now!" Naruto shouted as he used his blades to once again block the monster's swipes.

'Where are its eyes? How can it keep seeing me?' he thought as he once again clashed with the predator. 'It kinda looks like a bat, actually.'

"Naruto, it must be using some form of echolocation to keep track of us!" It seemed Hinata was thinking along the same lines as him.

"Agreed!" was all Naruto had a chance to say as the predator dived forward, saliva dripping from its maw, already anticipating its mid-day snack.

Naruto raised his ninja-to and kunai and formed a cross guard with the two weapons to block the next attack, making a slight clanging noise as they met with force, but the attack never landed. The beast had stopped in its tracks and was wildly looking around as the clanging noise echoed through the forest. It seemed disoriented.

Finally a weakness they could exploit!

"Hinata, it doesn't like loud noises! Echoes throw it off!" Naruto swiped forward with his blade and smiled as dark black blood sprayed outwards from its paw, a digit falling to the ground. The beast roared and dived back, obviously not used to pain.

Hinata nodded her head absentmindedly and bashed two kunai together, driving her foe back until it too decided its snack was not worth the time. She sighed with contentment, happy to have survived the encounter.

"Th-that was close," she said. "They p-proved more agile than I w-would have thought."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement. "Let's just hope we don't have to see those two again."

Day 269

We've decided to call those two things predators; it seems

fitting with how they hunt. They have no eyes and can actually

hear you as you approach, no matter how silent you are. We

haven't seen them yet anyway, so let's hope it's the last of them.

I will admit that little guy we saved was kinda cute, though; a

little weird-looking, but cute. Anyway, yesterday was a bust. We

decided not to look for a portal and just keep watch for the

predators. Today is a new day, though, and I plan to find a new

portal, a new home. We've moved camp to the lake, too; it's

interesting, to say the least - dinosaurs of all kinds visit to drink.

It's kinda soothing; I know Hinata likes to watch them in the

morning.

"Hinata, don't forget to bring everything you wanna keep! Just in case we do find that portal home!" Naruto said with gusto as Hinata exited the small tent they had slept in. The dawn of a new day and the peaceful nature of the watering hole had really lifted his spirits.

"Hai, a-always positive, Naruto." Hinata smiled as she reentered the tent to grab her kit and satchel.

"Hey! Nothing wrong with that! 'Sides, today could be the day we find a. . . . Shit, Hinata, you have to see this!" Naruto all but shouted out. "Up there!"

Hinata stuck her head out of the makeshift tent and followed Naruto's pointed finger to a mountain range. "A-a portal! We did it, Naruto! We f-found a portal!"

"Let's go - before it closes! No telling when that could happen!" Naruto smiled. "And you thought it was a lost cause."

"Hey! I-I never said that, Naruto!" She smiled as well. Home could literally be just up a hill.

Nothing was ever easy. After grabbing all the stuff they would need to survive in case they ended up in another wild world - better safe than sorry - they ran into an interesting character, a Gorgonopsid.

The dinosaur roared as it approached the portal. It was something new and interesting, and possibly tasty.

"Please, please, please don't go through that portal," Naruto whispered. Hinata laughed at his plight.

"I-I'm sure it'll be okay, Naruto. Maybe it won't. . . ." As she was about to finish the sentence, the Gorgonopsid disappeared. "Oh."

"Well, we might as well follow that thing now; no telling what could happen," Naruto said, sighing as he got up from behind the log they had hidden behind.

"A-agreed." Hinata, too, sighed as she grabbed her bags and followed Naruto into the portal, and hopefully into a new home.

Author Notes;

This is the finished chapter for A Door to Far, with the help of a new beta who was both patient and kind I was able to turn something that was mediocre into something that I feel is excellent, no doubt much better than my other story, which I highly recommend you do not read, it's not my best work but I keep it there for proof of how much someone can improve. Thanks again for all the help VoicesInTheWind